Visit by the Minister of Tourism,
Wildlife and Culture
Showing the government’s new commitment to culture, in the
cabinet reshuffle in May the Department of Culture has
joined the departments of Tourism and National Parks and
Wildlife to form a new ministry. On 14th and 15th of July
the newly appointed Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and
Culture, the Principal Secretary, and the Directors of
Culture, National Parks and Wildlife and Tourism visited
Lengwe National Park and were given a tour of Tisunge!. They
were all very enthusiastic about Tisunge! and what it stands
for. The press was also present.
Research of Private Initiatives
Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands has set up a
research project which aims to critically assess the impact
and functioning of Dutch private initiatives in the
development of Malawi and Ghana. Mlambe Foundation
participated in the study. Lecturer and researcher, Lau
Schulpen of Radboud University, came to Malawi in July to
visit our projects. He also talked extensively to our
partners in Malawi and made a memorable visit to Singano and
Kampomo in the Lower Shire Valley. Two villages which are
very (pro-) active in their cooperation with Tisunge!. We
are anxiously awaiting the results.
Visit by ICCO
A delegation of ICCO, one of the prime funding agencies of
Tisunge!, came to visit the site and see the progress with
their own eyes. Also several villages were visited. We hope
ICCO appreciated our achievements, so we might call upon
them again for funding through their Impulsis programme.
Culture Connection Magazine
The Foundation supported the publication of a new magazine
by Chichiri Museum, more specifically the Group for Children
in African Museums (GCAM) in Blantyre, – Culture Connection.
Nicole Thomson, a Canadian intern from the Commonwealth
Association of Museums, spent 4 months in Malawi and worked
very hard on the magazine together with mr. Mike Gondwe and
Aron Maluwa of Chichiri Museum.They visited a number of
schools and interviewed children about the role of culture
in fighting poverty.The result is a wonderful magazine with
many quotes from the children which shows a lot of hope in
Malawi’s future and a central role for culture in the
alleviation of poverty. The magazine also contains an
article by Menno Welling about Tisunge! and the role it
plays in the alleviation of poverty through traditional
culture. The launch of the magazine took place on the 13th
of July in the presence of the Deputy Minister of Tourism,
National Parks and Culture and was a great success. Menno
Welling was interviewed by the
Daily Times. The interview can be read there.
Volunteers
In the last months we have
welcomed and said goodbye to a number of volunteers.
In March Justin and Dax arrived from South Africa, after a
long and beautiful trip through Mozambique, to start their
volunteer work for Tisunge!. Justin is an archeologist and
had just graduated for his honours bachelor, Dax, an
ecologist, was initially along for the ride, but was
immediately enthusiastic when he heard that Tisunge! was
being built on the border of a national park. Due to
personal circumstances Dax could only stay for 3 weeks.
Justin stayed on and was the first volunteer to actually
live on site in one of the buildings that is intended to be
the educational office. Justin did a tremendous amount of
work. Besides keeping a constant eye on the construction, he
also worked very hard in cataloguing and conserving the
objects that had already been collected from the villages.
He moreover took an active part in collecting new objects
from the villages and took a lot of work out of Menno’s
hands, who could hence concentrate on other things that
needed his attention. He furthermore excelled in printing
the Tisunge! logo on the football jerseys and did work for
the library. In addition to all that he was able to do some
archeological work. He enjoyed himself so much that we have
not had to say goodbye to Justin: he now has a job as
lecturer with the Department of Anthropology of the Catholic
University of Malawi. A lot of his free time is still spent
on work for Tisunge!. The Foundation can count itself lucky
with volunteers like that! Martine, who volunteered for the
Foundation last year, may also come back to Malawi to live
and work. You can see how a country can get under your skin.
At the end of May, Kim – also an archeologist and one of our
board members – came back to Malawi to volunteer for a
second time for two months. Kim has equally done a
tremendous amount of work. Apart from assisting in the
collection of objects and cataloguing and photographing
them, Kim has set up the library. The supervision of the
construction was transferred from Justin to Kim without a
hitch and the interior of the shop is ready for opening
thanks to Kim. The master piece of Kim has to be the
beautiful mosaic of the Tisunge! logo – made of slate – that
she laid in the floor of the meeting area. She had to redo
it three times due to construction errors in the floor and
NOT because of the quality of the mosaic. The result is
something to be really proud of. We have had to say goodbye
to Kim, in Malawi, but she will of course remain one of our
board members and who knows……..Kim also seems to have lost
her heart to Malawi. Tionana!
At the end of July Evelien – geographer – came to strengthen
our team of volunteers. At that time Justin was temporarily
in South Africa to prepare for his new job and life here in
Malawi and Evelien gladly moved in to make shift home for
volunteers. Kim coached Evelien into the ins and outs of
construction supervision (not easy for a woman to act as a
supervisor of men around here) and all current matters were
smoothly transferred. Evelien and Kim worked together for a
month and Evelien worked alone for her second and last
month. It is perhaps becoming repetitive but Evelien also
did a tremendous amount of work. With success she
experimented with natural dying of cotton. Helped by the
work already done by Rianka and Justin and with the
assistance of Mbaya in collecting the right tree and plant
species, she achieved a great result in her last few days at
Tisunge!. Evelien (just as Kim) had the tough task of having
to say goodbye to some of the bricklayers and laborers at
Tisunge!. The construction has mostly been done for now
until we acquire additional funding for the other building
that are planned (the weaving area, a depository, additional
research offices, a guest house for volunteers and part time
researchers and staff housing). As soon as the funding is
there we hope to be able to employ the same people. Evelien
has written a reference for all of them. She has furthermore
written two project proposals. One for the development of a
tree plantation, in order for Tisunge! to be sustainable and
a second one for the installation of a maize mill. The maize
mill will not only generate income for Tisunge! but more
importantly will also provide a service to the communities.
Zikomo kwambiri!
More gratitude
It is about time to thank many others for their continuing
support and hard work. First of all thanks goes to Max Del
Bufalo (Jambo Africa) for his constant support and the
tremendous amount of work he has done and still does. Max
spends a lot of time on the construction of Tisunge! and has
been greatly involved from the beginning. Volunteers have
furthermore always found free accommodation and refuge at
Nyala Lodge that is run by Jambo Africa. The Foundation
again wants to express its gratitude for this generosity.
Moreover, Max Del Bufalo has donated the maize mill to the
project.
We would also like to thank
Steven. Steven is the technical manager of Nyala Lodge and
has spent a lot of his time on the electricals and plumbing
for Tisunge!. In the absence of volunteers he supervises the
construction.
A third person who always lends a hand when requested is
Catherine – Peace Corps volunteer in Mpampa (a village right
next to Tisunge!). She has helped with getting the tree
nursery started and is now working on a separate website for
Tisunge!
His name has cropped up in almost (if not every) newsletter
– Mr. Mbaya – scout with National Parks in Lengwe – and now
indispensable for Tisunge! It is quite unbelievable the
amount of work he does and always with a smile. Mbaya means
a lot for the relationship with the communities and National
Parks.
Mary, head housekeeping of Nyala Lodge, always makes sure
the buildings of Tisunge! are kept clean. Without Mary the
spiders would have taken over a long time ago.
Mr. Sichali – head research in Lengwe National Park – has
helped us out with the tree planting project in the villages
and is always available for advice.
Chief Singano, who is always very positive about our plans
and helps out any way he can. He always welcomes us and our
guests with the utmost friendly hospitality in his village
and home and we never go home hungry.
Messrs Moresi and Bagili of
Kampomo, who on their own initiative have started to teach
their schoolchildren how to spin, always assist us in our
relationship with Kampomo and Kanzimbi and always find time
to discuss.
We finally want to thank our partners. Department of
National Parks and Wildlife, Department of Culture, Chief
Lundu, Jambo Africa – all united in the Lower Shire Heritage
Trust – the community based organisations and all our
employees, weavers and spinners.
Download
Newsletter vol.2 nr.3
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